ETF News

Horizons Inovestor Canadian Equity Index (symbol INOC), holding an equally weighted portfolio of 25 large-cap Canadian companies screened for positive growth and value attributes, opened for trading today on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

About the Author

Rudy Luukko is editor, investment and personal finance, at Morningstar Canada. Before joining Morningstar in 2004, he worked as an editor and writer for various general, specialty and institutional media. He holds a Canadian Investment Manager (CIM) designation and a Bachelor of Journalism degree from Carleton University. A former chair and founding member of the Canadian Investment Funds Standards Committee (CIFSC), he has also co-authored courses for the Canadian Securities Institute. He welcomes your comments at rudy.luukko@morningstar.com but cannot provide individual advice. Follow Rudy on Twitter: @RudyLuukko

The underlying index for the exchange-traded fund is the NASDAQ Inovestor Canada Index, whose bottom-up quantitative discipline is described as QARP, an acronym that denotes high quality at a reasonable price. The index was designed by Inovestor Inc., an affiliate of the ETF's Montreal-based sub-advisor Inovestor Asset Management.

Using a multi-factor approach, Inovestor's screening process seeks to identify Canadian companies that achieve high levels of "economic profit" and are trading at attractive valuations.

As noted in the prospectus, the economic profit of a company is estimated by subtracting its cost of capital from its net operating profit after tax. In the first stage of the screening, the methodology identifies the top 100 securities by economic profit.

Next, the sector weights of this group of 100 securities is calculated. These weightings are applied in selecting the final portfolio of 25 securities. A scoring system, employing both growth and value criteria, is applied to select securities from each sector.

The index is rebalanced quarterly. At that time, new constituents may be added and existing ones dropped, creating a revised equally weighted portfolio. Between rebalancing dates, the weightings of the individual constituents will vary.

The management fee charged by Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. is 0.5%, which does not include operating expenses.

Don’t miss out on communications from Morningstar Canada! Sign up for our specialised newsletters, get early notice of our events, and get access to exclusive promotional content. Manage your subscriptions here.